Canadian Sunset

We’ve done the Viking TAs twice. The second time was in March 2020. We were mid-Atlantic when they closed all of the ports and declared the pandemic. The ship turned around and headed back to the US, and by the time we arrived they had secured all of us flights, regardless of whether we were going to US, Canada, UK, or in one case, Poland. The first cruise was St. Maarten, Funchal, Valencia and one other.

In my opinion they are, but I’m older and pickier.

We have been with Viking a few times and loved them. Were on Constellation starting March 6 and found our balcony stateroom looking quite sad. The food was OK but there was a lack of staff to serve and they were rushing around. We were told that Viking took many of them. The real downside was that Covid ran rampant, as did Norovirus. We were to be on a back-to-back but had to leave in Tampa after the first leg. Missed our flight home due to a delay in getting passengers off the ship. We had been on Viking in 2022 for 4 weeks and stayed healthy. Enough said.

We used to book cruises with Viking and were always pleased until the last time. We had no idea that Easter, Passover and Ramadan were all at the same time in 2022. We normally fly economy and paynextra for aisle seats. We also ALWAYS use a travel agent. Unfortunately nobody foresaw these three holidays coming together and we were stuffed like sardines into a Lufthansa 747. Other than that we have had no problems because our TA is a friend and is always there. We’ve purchased air for our Celebrity cruise in March. The airline is Air Canada Rouge out of Toronto, but is only a three hour flight. We have paid for aisle seats and will manage well.

My husband and I will be on Connie March 6 -27. We’ve spent the last 10 years with Viking and loved it. However, we wanted to spend more than 10 days cruising the Caribbean, something Viking doesn’t do. We booked back to back cruises from Tampa and are looking forward to the sunshine. We were on Connie 14 years ago and look forward to it again. Being older than Boomers we intend to wear masks around the ship. Although fully vaccinated, we’ve managed to avoid covid so far and would like to continue.

I don’t get why people are so upset with daily testing. How hard is it to spit in a tube every morning? My husband and I did it for 25 days and survived. We also continue to wear masks now that we’re home. Not a big deal.